FromZto5

EDIT: June 15, 2013

Install complete. What a royal pain in the you know what. Wow. My biggest heartaches were removing that stupid connector.... Then putting it back in those metal fingers so that you can lock the rotating tab clockwise again. Wow, just a royal pain. What should have been a 15 minute job took an hour. The concept of it is easy, but wiggling in that tight space is a pain. My wife oils have sworn there was a drunken sailor in our garage. Plus my fingers and hands are all raw from scraping and prying at all those connectors there

I love the new lights tho... They are a perfect white.

Some night shots... Loving these new bulbs. Hopefully they last a long time. I don't drive that frequently at night, so hopefully that should help make them last longer lol

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For those of you with stock HIDs, have any of you upgraded the bulbs to something of a better quality/output than the stock bulbs? I know the bulb size is D3S, and if it's worth the upgrade, I'd spring for it. Reason for this is I recently upgraded to HIDs in the wife's car, since it had stock projector housing halogens. I merely upgraded the bulbs (with ballast), and it's the best looking HID I've seen.

I have no interest in anything beyond 5k color temps. I just want a 4300 to 5000 temp, but a BETTER version than stock. Thoughts?

Reminisce

I recently converted my GT to HIDs from Retro Solutions and they are absolutely amazing.
They also sell the bulbs alone with a lifetime warranty.

http://retro-solutions.net/product-l...pg1-cid69.html

5.0verkill

hey Reminisce did you just drop the HIDs in your factory housing or purchased projectors?

Gtstyles2

If u have stock HIDs I wouldn't mess with it... U have a bi-xenon bulb which I can imagine it would've hard to find a good enough replacement... I recently added 4500k 35w HIDs to my CS foglights and I'm pretty happy with them... I like the factory output of the headlights

FromZto5

Thanks for the input guys. I was just hoping there was a drop in HID Bulb I could get that was between 4300 and 5000 for color temp, but provided a brighter light/better quality light than the OEM headlights. From what I understand, they are already Osrams? And aren't those supposed to be top notch? My TSX and the Xenonsupply bulbs on the Prius are SO much better.

I dunno.

Gtstyles2

This is 4500k in the fogs and the factory 4300k HIDs up top... I was slightly disappointed that the fogs came out a bit on the blueish side... After a while I got used to it, and I really like it now :-) it was definitely needed for the CS fogs, which have poor light output from factory

Stevedotmil

I have always been bothered that the stock LED fogs are more blue than the HIDs.

FromZto5

Fogs look great man! Yeah the stock HIDs look a little too yellow for me . I don't want 6ks, I just want a slightly whiter 4300.

Agree. IMO, the stock HIDs are a little too yellow. I have other 4300 HIDs in other cars and they're not as yellow as the mustangs.

stang8psi

who did you go through for your 4500 kit?

Gtstyles2

www.ddmtuning.com

Overboost

Skip the DDM stuff. I've watched four sets of their bulbs and ballasts die within 18 months of install, and all of which were done properly.

If you want a truly high quality bulb, find a set of Osram Sylvania bulbs. You might have to look for a set of OEM MB or Audi bulbs in D3S to get a color difference. Also, the projector has a lot to do with the output and appearance of the light. Without a retrofit or replacement, you might get diminished performance out of a new bulb set.

99mstng

I've had multiple sets of ddm bulbs/kits over the years never any issues ... a year ago I bought a pair of 5k ds3 bulbs from stangmods to match my ddm 5k kit in the cs fogs and they went out on me about every 10-15 minutes and I'd have to flick my lights on and off to get them to come back on. When I called they said others had complained as well and I returned them.

I may try ddm eventually just not a huge priority at the moment ...

Reminisce

FromZto5, check out retro solutions and give them a call. They have a 55w kit that puts out more power than factory 35w kits and aftermarket kits. Their bulbs are also bixenon and they use top notch balasts if you ever want to change those out as well. As you can tell I'm overly satisfied with them.
(FYI, i have the 4300k 35w kit. Its perfectly white, i love it)

JPMotorSport

I'd be cautions with this, I am not sure of the specifics but I know the newer OEM Bi-Xenons are more of the proprietary type than than the original 'd2s' and 'd2r' bulbs in the earlier single bulb projector housing...

Either way, why would you want to lower the effective output by loosing lumens power trying to chase a certain kind of color. It isn't like every kit consistently produces the color temperature advertised anyway.

TheDivaDanielle

never had any issues with DDM either. They've been in my GTO, my Beetle, and now in my Mustang.

Currently rocking DDM Tuning 4500k's in my Headlights and my HID GT/CS fogs.

FromZto5

So you have a stock HID set up to begin with, and simply swapped bulbs to the retro solutions bulb? I would think there would be no need for a ballast upgrade right, since they are already there stock?

Do you have pics of your setup?

Hey jp, what's up man. I want to gain the 4300 to 5k look without sacrificing lumens. The stock osrams just seem too yellowish for me. I don't want 6ks, but just a bit whiter than stock. My tsx stock HIDs at 4300 are wayyyyy whiter than my mustang stockers. Annoying.

Danielle, I know you have a 13, so I know you have a stock hid setup. So you swapped your bulbs out only, with something from ddm tuning? Have you been very happy? Do you have pics of your light output? Or even better, a before and after?

TheDivaDanielle

I'm more than happy with my headlights and foglights. Same color now. Light output on the headlights just shifted in color not output. Foglights obviously went from 800 lumen candles to around 3200 lumen lasers.

Here's two recent pics.

FromZto5

Now those headlights look truly white! Much whiter than oem ones. So do you have a link for which ones you got and where? And was it a simple swap out of just bulbs? Remove plastic cover then turn bulb and remove, then repeat opposite for install?

TheDivaDanielle

yup. Headlights bulbs are a ***** to change though.

Just ordered 4500k replacement bulbs for the headlights. Then a 4500k 35w kit for the fogs.

FromZto5

Ok Danielle... Is this the pair of bulbs you got? I might go with 5000k bulbs, since my switchback LEDs are 5000k.

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/HI...lacements-Pair

40 bucks for a bulb pair is not bad, with a 1 yr warranty.

Did you or anyone else running these have any issues with flickering or shutting off intermittently or anything like that???

These replacement D3S bulbs are both high and low beams, right?